Today I want to write but have really nothing to say.

I simply want…

• to feel my pen glide over the paper
• to hear the soft scratching of the nib on the page
• to watch the glisten of the wet ink as it dries
• to hear the jazz music playing softly in the background
• to touch the smooth paper and hard angles of my pen
• to smell the faith scent of my steeping pot of tea
• to write

I simply want to write and get caught up in the delight of the moment.

My first post on building habits focused on why establishing habits is so difficult then looked at Leo Babauta’s four-step (plus one) method of starting new habits. In this post, I want to suggest a few very practical things that have helped me:

• (re-) start working out three to four times a week
• spend twenty to thirty minutes studying Greek each morning
• create regular stress breaks during the workday
• begin daily dad-daughter ‘checkups’ with my teenage daughter

Nothing in these tips is terribly earth-shattering, but there may be some things you have never thought to try and that may be just the thing to help get over the dreaded inertia and create new habits in your life.

1. Put habits on your calendar–It may sound obvious or just plain silly, but I’ve found it helpful to actually schedule in time into my daily routine for whatever habit it is I’m trying to establish. If you’re like many, if something is not on your calendar, it may as well not exist. This is not necessarily a bad thing (thought it may well be), and for many in the corporate world, it is an unavoidable reality. If you see it on your schedule and protect that time as sacred, you’re more likely to follow through and get that inertia going in your favor. So, pencil in some time for new habits!

2. Schedule things at an odd time–I enjoy working out (typically running) but hate, abhor, despise early morning workouts. Yes, I get it that the rest of the world likes to run first thing in the morning. Not me. I dreaded doing it and eventually stopped…until I scheduled my running times in mid/late afternoon. It’s a quirky time to run, but I find myself looking forward to breaking the afternoon duldrums and getting out of the office. Try scheduling your hard to stick to new habit at an off-time and see how it goes!

3. Declutter other areas to make physical / emotional room–This may also sound obvious or impossible, but sometimes you need to get rid of something in order to add something. Perhaps there is physical time in your schedule but you find yourself emotionally unable to add “one more thing.” Find something to cut. Maybe you drop a routine meeting that you have no business actually attending. Maybe it’s a time catching up on news. Maybe you eliminate that inevitable late afternoon gathering around the water cooler. There’s doubtless some thing you could cut out for the sake of a new good habit.

photo credit: Creative Commons License | A~~~ via Compfight

The anticipation of filling a blank notebook,
the effortless glide of a fountain pen on the page,
the beauty of cobalt blue ink,
the scent of a freshly-sharpened wooden pencil,
the quiet scratching of graphite on paper,
the therapeutic slowing down of the printed word,

…these are some of the joys from a love of paper.

photo credit: Creative Commons License | Amir Kuckovic via Compfight

There is a part of every writer that wants to be accepted, to be valued, and to make an indelible mark on the world. If it were not so, no one would ever publish anything but would keep their own thoughts tucked away inside private journals. Chasing that acceptance, however, is fatal because it tends to make writers pursue that elusive thrill for thrill’s sake. Instead of writing for its own sake or to satisfy the muse, we begin to write for recognition–in the case of blogging that recognition comes in the form of site stats, comments, shares, etc.

I quit.

Writing is not about recognition. I doubt the most treasured writers on my shelf–Shakespeare, Tolkien, Thoreau, Frost, or Hemingway (to name a few)–ever wrote, taught, or spoke merely for recognition. They wrote and taught and spoke because they had to, because it was what they did and who they were.

• I don’t write to pay the bills, so site stats no longer are the gauge of success
• I don’t write ‘for the fame’ (to quote Lady Gaga), so comments no longer matter
• I don’t write because I’m seeking to sway anyone about anything, so shares are no longer important

I write simply because I am a writer.

You’re welcome to comment, interact, or share if something resonates with you…in fact, please do…but I won’t be disappointed if you don’t.

PS: If you want to read some great encouragement along these same lines, check out Jeff Goins’ (@jeffgoins) You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)…it’s free today on Amazon.  I profit nothing from his work, and that’s no affiliate link, BTW.

photo credit: Creative Commons License Insomnia PHT via Compfight

As with every new habit, there is the struggle between the ‘old way’ and the ‘new way’ of doing things. For every new habit one seeks to create, there is at least one old habit that must be broken and put away. Fact is, it all comes down to inertia.

Remember inertia from high school physics? You probably do, but as a reminder for me:

“Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion.” (Wikipedia)

Put simply, it’s easier to keep doing what you’re doing–even if that is nothing but wasting time–than it is to start something new.

Inertia explains why it is hard to create new habits, even positive ones we want to create. It also explains why it is easier to keep up with a habit (good or bad) once it is established and becomes ‘normal.’ So, physics lesson aside, given that creating new habits involves wrestling against one of the most fundamental forces of nature…how can we pull it off?

There are many good articles on forming new habits, but one of my favorites was written about a year ago by Leo Babauta on Zen Habits. Take a few minutes to read and digest the entire post (here), but he suggests four points:

1. Make it social–find a way to hold yourself accountable
2. Do one habit at a time only–don’t change too many things at once
3. Make it your top priority–if you don’t have time, make time
4. Enjoy the habit–the more you enjoy it, the longer you’ll stick with it

To Leo’s four, I’ll suggest one more: Forgive yourself for tripping up. It is important to hold this closely in tension with accountability. While you want to have encouragement to succeed, life will inevitably get in the way and cause you to fail, at least once. In those times it’s important to forgive yourself and press on resolved to continue building the new habit. The alternative is to become frustrated and give up a la New Year’s resolutions.

Inertia is tough to overcome. Can you do it and create new habits? Of course!

What new habits are you working on or have you recently established? What helped you overcome inertia and succeed in creating those new habits?

photo credit: Creative Commons License Krikit ♥ via Compfight